>>7544212I wasn’t collecting during the Toybiz ML years, so when I started about 4yrs ago and looked at those older ML’s I just thought to myself ‘Yikes, those look weird.’ My issue though is the body and limb proportions. Yes, the articulation of the later series was a greater range-of-motion than today’s but it made figures that were supposed to be regular humans have body frames reminiscent of a gibbon with clunky overly-articulated hands.
Some were genuinely good-looking, and Hasbro’s work on the line has not exactly been perfect either. All in all I favor Hasbro only a bit more due to the humanoid proportions they use with reusing molds (but fuck their swivel thighs, calves, and waists).
Another line that hasn’t aged well:
Kaiyodo Skyluv Love Hina figures. These were pre-revoltech and were engineering marvels for their day in the EARLY 2000’s, with swappable heads, a few cast-off clothing accessories, and faceplates (with sculpted 3D eyes no less), but good lord are they ancient in terms of articulated anime figures. Even Revoltech Frauleins were a considerably better design. Of all the Love Hina Figures, Naru had the most articulation with ball-socked head-neck joint, swivel shoulders, swivel biceps, swivel elbows, swivel diaphragm, swivel t-hips, swivel thighs, and hinged knees. All the other girls (Motoko, Kitsune, Shinobu, Mutsumi, Su, and Sarah) have less articulation than Naru (Sarah and Mutsumi have the least, I believe).
Only redeeming things about the line even today are that they go for $20-$40 MISB on eBay, and each girl has a good bit of accessories that work well for 1/12-ish scale.
